There are times when a record, even in the era of streaming and playlists, manages to capture the spirit of the moment. It’s not exactly about sales, impeccable production or million-dollar tours. It has more to do with getting the formula right for that intangible something that defines the time in which we live. bratby Charli XCX, is one of those albums.
The British singer’s sixth studio work was published at the beginning of June, and according to the review aggregator Metacritic it is the highest rated album so far in 2024, above Cowboy Carter by Beyoncé, who remains in second place. I mean, she’s killing it. As proof, her presentation set at Boiler Room, which took place in New York in February, received some 25,000 requests for 1,000 invitations, becoming the most coveted in the promoter’s history.
brat He is abrasive, impetuous, unleashed, and also vulnerable. But Charli XCX’s impact transcends the musical. Its radius of influence encompasses everything that obsesses Generation Z. The color Brat green, a toxic tone, typical of bile or blandiblup, that floods the ugly cover, seems to be everywhere, it is not known if it is the result of a cunning campaign. marketing or by virtue of virality. The British Green Party published a version of the album design for the election campaign, there are countless memes, there are manicure tutorials on TikTok that replicate it, and there is even an image generator that is being used to talk about any topic imaginable. Other artists signed up for what is already defined as the color of summer: Caroline Polachek has posed with an image of the already recognizable cover and Rosalía wore radioactive green nail polish.
This uncomfortable hue is already infiltrating fashion, and has featured in collections from Prada, Martine Rose, Gucci and Loewe. Charli XCX said in an interview with Vogue Singapore who experimented with 65 colors until he found just the “offensive” tone he was looking for: “I want to question pop culture expectations. Why are there things that are considered acceptable and others not? “She stated. “I don’t do anything to be a good girl.” For something brat It means something like brat in English: unless you are remembered for being a nightmare.
“Expectation is a powerful weapon. When we saw Charli “But the British woman’s career has always been about demolishing expectations. And in this case, what no one expected was this honesty in his lyrics. For listeners tired of certain narratives of contemporary pop music (cult of the body as a symptom of sexual freedom, sound mixes to convince too many, overload of collaborations), brat offers more rawness and realism. And for the minorities that now reinforce values and ideas in the podcasting, some of these songs are the most entertaining musical confirmation bias you’ll find in a long time. A few years ago, Cosey Fanni Tutti (Throbbing Gristle) said in conversation with Nik Void that, after so many years in bands and working with men, she had realized that they tend to fill in gaps in music more than girls. These often create sound windows, so to speak. Musically, brat It is completely full (electro, dance two-milero, progressive ambient), there is no room possible. But the light comes in when Charli sings that Should I stop my birth control? Cause my career feels so small in the existential theme of it all (Should I stop taking contraceptives? Because my career seems so small on an existential level), because it plays with binary terms in its favor.
The focus on the letters of brat They are also generating a stir that has to do with thinly veiled references to other artists. The songs are filled with trolling, drama, and gossip. Sympathy is a knife supposedly talks about Taylor Swift, who dated for a time with Matty Healy, singer of The 1975, the same band in which George Daniel, Charli’s current partner plays drums. “I don’t want to see her in the backstage at my boy’s concerts, I hope they stop soon,” the lyrics say. The feud stemmed from earlier, when Charli described her performance to open Swift’s previous tour as: “Going up on stage and greeting five-year-old girls.” The American, for her part, used her power to climb the British charts, on the same dates that it was launched. Bratreleasing for a limited time in the United Kingdom the six reissues of The Tortured Poets Department. The move put Swift at the top of the charts, preventing Brat from reaching number one. Charli has asked her fans, known as “angels,” to stop chanting “Taylor is dead” at her concerts, stressing that she will not tolerate that kind of hate at her shows.
But the ambivalent relationship with Lorde is causing even more trouble. It’s a recurring joke that they confuse the two artists, and Charli’s fans get involved and ask her to play in her live shows. Royals by Lorde. In the cut Girl, so confusing The British woman would talk about her friend and rival: “You write poetry, I throw parties.” Any suspicion of a feud that was escalating was closed with the collaboration of both in the remix of the same topic. In Lorde’s version of her, she admits that she always admired Charli, she canceled the plans she proposed at the last minute because she felt insecure with her image and she didn’t want to appear in photos of her. The original version fantasizes about a collaboration that would revolutionize the networks, and that is what happened.
But there is something else that explains this obsession with brat. In our existence chronically on-line The album builds a bridge between digital and club culture. References for Charli, real name Charlotte Aitchison, have street. She started acting in raves Londoner at the age of fourteen, and at 31 he has experienced both MySpace and Tumblr as well as illegal parties in industrial warehouses. His sessions full of unexpected cameos make us feel FOMO again (the fear of missing out). And although brat winks at influencers of Instagram that many consider hateful like Gabbriette, has that friend aspect that pushes you to leave the house and not return until the next morning.
It is sobering to think that this work bursts onto the scene after multiple months of crisis, wars and political tension. The feverish hedonism that it proposes encourages letting oneself go, persuades of the unnecessaryness of constant optimization, warns that partying is also taking care of oneself, and whoever is free to criticize should cast the first stone, because any woman at some point can be a bit little girl brat It has undoubtedly been the final blow that has pulverized the ‘clean girl’ trend, of yoga classes and undetectable makeup to recover those girls with acrylic French manicure, and a Bic lighter in their pocket. Is this the confirmation of that vibe shift, that kind of reset or paradigm shift that trend hunter Sean Monahan predicted? We will see it in the coming months.
In one of the topics, Rewindits author confesses that diva-like detail of the 2000s, which is to call the paparazzi to appear in the media (“everyone does it”). After the success you’ll enjoy this summer, chances are you’ll never have to pick up the phone again.
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